School of Sanctuary

What is a School of Sanctuary?A School of Sanctuary is a school that is committed to being a safe and welcoming place for all, especially those seeking sanctuary. This could be people whose lives were in danger in their own country, who have troubles at home or are just looking for a space of safety.

A School of Sanctuary is a school that helps its students, staff and wider community understand what it means to be seeking sanctuary and to extend a welcome to everyone as equal, valued members of the school community. It is a school that is proud to be a place of safety and inclusion for all.

There are three simple principles to being a School of Sanctuary:

Learn about what it means to be seeking sanctuary.

Take positive action to embed concepts of welcome, safety and inclusion within your school and the wider community.

Share your vision and achievements – be proud!

At Bantock Primary SchoolWe are very proud to be working towards achieving School of Sanctuary status and welcome everyone to our school as equal members of the community.

Some of the great things that we do at Bantock Primary School:

Celebrate International Refugee Day

​Celebrate International Roma Day

8th April is International Romani Day – a day to celebrate Romani culture and to raise awareness of the issues faced by Romani people over time.

Miss Bibiana and Miss Gulasova presented a whole school assembly all about the Romani culture. They taught us about famous Romani people such as Charlie Chaplin and Pablo Picasso; they told us where Romani people came from and they played us Romani Music!

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Pupil assemblies

The pupils at Bantock produce and present their own assemblies about important topics such as diversity – where we explain what diversity is and why it is so important; and new beginnings – where we discuss what it means to be new somewhere and how we can help people who are new to the country, to Wolverhampton or to our school, to make them feel welcome!

​​Celebrate our diversity

At Bantock, did you know that we our children can speak over 50 different languages? We are a very unique school with a diverse set of languages and cultures. We celebrate our differences because we are proud of them. Here is our school choir at the Wolverhampton Schools Diversity Celebration in November singing our song, ‘SHINE’. ​​

On Wednesday 14th February, Inderjit Bhogal OBE—the founder and president of City of Sanctuary—came to Bantock to present the award during our fantastic pupil assembly.Shonte, Amelia, Manuela and Masiya from Year 4 presented their own assembly all about what School of Sanctuary means to them.This award recognises all the hard work that the staff and children do in making Bantock Primary School such a welcoming and happy place for children from different backgrounds, cultures, countries and religions. We are proud of our diversity and we always ensure that everyone at Bantock has the chance to SHINE! Take a look at our new display in the school entrance hall and listen to what the children have to say! The Express and Star also came to take a photograph for the newspaper. Found out what they said here, https://www.expressandstar.com/news/local-hubs/wolverhampton/2018/02/19/school-celebrates-award-recognising-it-as-safe-place-for-refugee-children/